The Statue
by Pixelframe
Summary: A look on loyalty in SR, focusing on Jade's emotions after the revealing of her betrayal and the impact of Femur's views on the matter. One-shot


_A/N: A look on loyalty in SR, focusing on Jade's emotions after the revealing of her betrayal and the impact of Femur's views on the matter. There is pov from both characters._

_Characters: Jade, Femur_

_Rating: K+_

_

* * *

_

**The Statue**

Lord Mantel's stone statue towered before Jade as she stood on the lowest step of the staircase where she so often received her commanding orders. Light from the hall's braziers combined with the flags of Rock created an eerie flicker of shadows over his face and seated body. His large eyes gazed down upon the lonely soul with a cold and domineering presence. Jade could feel his firm grip on her even now and she looked down pitifully. What was done had to be done, she thought. I remained loyal to the king and betrayed my friends because it was for their own good. I betrayed them all right. Took every bit of trust ̶ every scrape and I threw it under my feet like it was worthless. No way of getting it back now. What I did to Graveheart is unforgivable. I deserve it all ̶ the guilt. There's this damn earthquake in my chest. I'll hold onto it. I'll keep it because I owe it to them. Their cold stares won't hurt as much anymore. She looked back at the statue. Graveheart was lost to her now. Their relationship, which was always a light, exciting and sometimes humorous thing, was now horribly mangled and thinking about old times only made the pain that much more profound.

The tall doors of the chamber behind her opened without much dignity, and there came a heavy patter of footsteps that were all too familiar. Mostly because irritation and annoyance soon followed.

"You're not supposed to be in here Femur," she said as if talking to a child up to no good.

Femur's large eyes widened vertically. He could tell Jade was having a personal moment, of what he had a general idea of, but his nature usually got the better of his tact.

"Ah, what you doin?" he said in a loud and obnoxious voice. Jade didn't turn around and said nothing as her hands at her sides turned into fists. That didn't take long he thought. He looked up at the statue and shivered as if Mantel was some other worldly beast. "Eeya. If you ask me, the universe is better off without that lunatic around. The guy probably cracked stone walls when he smiled."

"You would do well to keep your mouth shut inside these walls toad." She turned her head sideways and glared at him.

Femur got the impression he was about to get a beating, and he raised both fat palms in defence. "Hey easy."

She turned back around. He was a bit surprised she didn't have more to say to him. There was a definite lack of insults on the floor meaning she was vulnerable ̶ it was obvious ̶ so it was only fair to cut his bickering rival some slack. That and he couldn't stand seeing such a beauty so sad and so off her game. He walked to her side and placed both palms on his large belly. He looked up at her face, which appeared deep in thought. Her eyes blankly stared ahead and her mouth sagged at the corners.

"So," he said quietly. "Why'd you do it anyway?"

There was silence for a moment, then Jade spoke. "I don't expect _you_ to understand."

Femur showed his grotesque teeth and shrugged. "No, of course not. I'm just the guy who had to lie and backstab his own brother to become emperor of the world. What the hell would I know?"

"Exactly," she responded.

"You're not getting me toots." He pointed a thumb back over his shoulder. "Everyone back there owes their skin to you, whether they like it or not. You honestly think Graveheart's alliance would have lasted even if they managed to destroy that smaller Beast planet on their own?"

"No," she said. "Not when people like you are running away like cowards."

He rubbed the back of his head and grinned. "Err, yeah, you got me there. But still. You got Mantel to turn things around in the war, I mean, he was probably so deluded he thought he could have taken on the Beast all by himself. It was you who changed that, even if he took control of all our armies and nearly got us all scrapped ̶ " He waved his hands and shook his head. "Not my point. Sooner or later, Graveheart and the others are going to realize it and you won't have to feel so guilty anymore. I'm the only one that gets it because the only thing I'm worried about is not getting my goose fried."

"Is this your way of thanking me?" she said, curious of his insight.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Femur took a couple of steps forward so that he was now standing in front of her. "The thing I don't get is, why you didn't just steal the moons ̶ and don't tell me you couldn't have found a way."

Jade looked at the warty thing in front of her and knew this was as far as his small mind could go in understanding her actions. She already knew that she had made the right decision but hearing confirmation of that fact by someone else had an unexpected effect of making her feel better. Even if it came from Femur, he was still sincere about it.

"Your race clearly has no concept of loyalty," she said.

"Oh we have. How do you think I get my soldiers to listen all the time? It's not just my attractive charm alone y'know." His smile was wide.

Jade reared her head in revulsion. "No."

"Loyalty ̶ that garbage just ties me down. How do you me expect to get what I want if I gotta listen to some blue haired hero all the time? And the whole drama of it when it goes down the drain just isn't worth the headache. You've really got some nerve Jade."

She cracked a one sided smile. Talking to Femur either had the effect of making you extremely angry or making you feel glad that you weren't Femur. At the moment, it was the latter.

"I hope you feel differently when some Bone warrior wanting your throne tries to gut you in your sleep."

He raised a brow. "No, no. I'm pretty much used to that already."

Bone's misguided, or rather lack of loyalty to its emperor, made Jade wonder why its society didn't just fall apart into a giant free for all. It seemed that overthrowing the emperor was like a yearly event and something that was expected rather than condemned. With Rock's concrete loyalty to the king, was it any better? People following their master to whatever end, to whatever consequence. Just look at what it all led to. All the planets were put in jeopardy because of her judgement. It made Jade really think about the reason for following Mantel's orders and so far, "a commander obeys her king", was her only argument.

"They were orders. I followed them," she finally said. It felt like she was stating it more to herself than Femur. "It was my duty to my king and to Rock's survival."

He gave a baffled expression as if her words surprised him. "You did what you did because you wanted to help Graveheart, not for some old guy sitting on his throne." He shrugged. "Or maybe it was to keep that high and mighty commander job of yours, I don't know. If I were you, I would have just stolen the moons and helped my friends ̶ I mean if they _really_ were what mattered to me the most. Deal with the consequences later."

Jade frowned. Did I obey Mantel just to keep my rank? Is that really all loyalty to a king boils down to? No, it's more than that. It has to be. No one, especially a clueless toad, is going to tell me otherwise.

Femur sighed. "Anyway, I'm off this rock. I better get back before Pelvus decides to give me a funeral too."

The doors closed behind Jade in a gust of air and she stood there frozen staring at the statue. A horn sounding from outside, hummed through the stone walls signalling the end of the ceremony and the start of another. It was time to collect the ashes. She left the chamber closing the doors behind her. When she would return, the statue would be there, and when the time came for a new ruler, still the statue would remain.


End file.
